


experience

by Soraofuranus



Series: Black reign Series [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Animagus Sirius Black, BAMF Sirius Black, God i love Sirius, Good Lucius Malfoy, Good Narcissa Black Malfoy, Good Peter Pettigrew, Good Severus Snape, He was a child at this point and in no way evil, Light Angst, Light Swearing, Magical Theory (Harry Potter), Marauders, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Refrence to modern English classics, Sirius Black Needs a Hug, Sirius Black-centric, Swearing, Werewolf Remus Lupin, Young James Potter, Young Peter Pettigrew, Young Remus Lupin, Young Severus Snape, Young Sirius Black, heir sirius black, minor and not often but swearing, refrence to English classics, sirius black head of house
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:00:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27764128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soraofuranus/pseuds/Soraofuranus
Summary: Do you really think those kids are evil, or are you perhaps projecting onto them?Maybe I am, or maybe I’m being realistic. I know half those people at the table and their all rude bastards and petty bitches. I refuse. Send me to Hufflepuff for all I care but not there.You sound a bit like a rude bastard with how you talk of CHILDREN right now. From how you think of them, I would argue it would be a perfect fit.I refuse. I won’t learn anything with being in that house. I can learn what it means to ‘be a Slytherin’ outside of that house. If I stay there I’m trapped. If I stay there, I won’t get to learn and understand what you seem to think I can understand.Please.Not there.(the latest chapter is the second one since I'm filling in the plot some more)(yes I suck at summaries I'm sorry)put on hold? if that's a thing, I have a writers block so that's fun :)
Relationships: Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter, Sirius Black & Severus Snape
Series: Black reign Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2070639
Kudos: 25





	1. ceremony of fate

“GRYFFINDOR”

The sorting hat called out, alerting the students of the new arrival to the table clad in red and gold, James potter.  
The words ‘obviously I’m going to be Gryffindor like my parents’ rang through Sirius’s head, something the other boy had said when they, and two others, met on the train. And just like that, the four would-be torn apart from each other. Sirius to Slytherin, Remus and Peter somewhere else, and James was in Gryffindor.

Pulling Sirius from his head was Professor McGonagle calling his name.  
The students left shuffling out of the way so he could go up to the hat. She placed the hat upon his head as the hall was silent, waiting for the obvious to happen, him being in Slytherin.

****

**You would be a spectacular Slytherin, good at lying and trickery, and ambitious.  
** …  
**Nothing to say, boy? Are you happy with this placement?  
** What? Why are you asking me, aren’t you meant to be all-knowing and great at soul searching or something?  
**Oh please, I’m merely a talking hat do I look like a god?  
** Maybe  
**Well, I assure you I’m not now-  
** Sounds like something a god would say  
**Do you know nothing of mythology? Clearly, Ravenclaw isn’t for you then.  
** Did you just insult my intelligence?  
**Obviously, now answer the question, are you happy with my placement?  
** No.  
**Oh? Pray tell why you feel its wrong then.  
** I am not like my family; I’m not evil.  
**Slytherin is hardly evil in itself; it just, unfortunately, has some of the qualities we focus upon to be evil.  
** So then it is evil  
**No, listen to what I said. Maybe this will help. Black magic, is that evil?  
** Yes, seemingly its got the word black for a reason, plus really who needs a curse to harm someone unless you want to do wrong?  
**Ahh so than you agree that its the person that bad not the spell inherently.  
** What no? When did I say that- maybe you should be the one to listen you dumb hat-god-thing  
**When you asked about who needs these spells. You agreed that it’s a dark spell when used in the wrong hands. A fighter of light- an Aurora, for example- could use one of these spells to save someone. Would you say what they did, who they are, are evil?  
** No…  
**So then you can see how a spell isn’t inherently evil, is it? So why should character traits- ones that can be used to achieve great things mind you- be classed as evil?  
** I don’t know alright, but you agreed, and so I refuse to be in that snake pit.  
**Do you really think those kids are evil, or are you perhaps projecting onto them?  
** Maybe I am, or maybe I’m being realistic. I know half those people at the table and their all rude bastards and petty bitches. I refuse. Send me to Hufflepuff for all I care but not there.  
**You sound a bit like a rude bastard with how you talk of CHILDREN right now. From how you think of them, I would argue it would be a perfect fit.  
** I refuse. I won’t learn anything with being in that house. I can learn what it means to ‘be a Slytherin’ outside of that house. If I stay there I’m trapped. If I stay there, I won’t get to learn and understand what you seem to think I can understand.Please.Not there.  
**This will cause pain to you.  
** I know this. But I don’t care. Anywhere but there  
**Perfect response my friend now-**

“GRYFFINDOR”

Unlike for the last few sortings of students, no one said anything. The Gryffindors didn’t cheer, the Slytherins didn’t jeer, and the others didn’t clap. It was deadly still.  
Sirius felt his blood run cold as soon as those words were said. He’d messed up big time.

The stillness was broken by the Pewrit twins cheering out, starting a round of applause from the Gryffindor table. James shot up, pulling a shocked Sirius over to sit with him.  
“WELCOME TO GRYFFINDOR”

he shouts must have woken up everyone because almost immediately after that last shout the Slytherins started screaming profanities and violence, disagreeing greatly with the placement of the black heir  
"He doesn't belong in a house full of mudbloods and blood traitors"  
"What a disgust"  
"The sortings wrong" and so many others flying across the room.  
Dumbledor, shutting them up, exclaimed  
“The hat has only made 11 mistakes and I doubt that this placement will have to be added to the list. I agree with the hat and therefore shall not change it. Now shall we continue” as he spoke those last words he motions for McGonagle to continue?

Sirius had zoned out everything, screaming at himself for even thinking of not being in Slytherin. So what if they would have made his life hell there, now he’s basically signed his death sentence. Not to mention his parents, he was already dreading Christmas, and the term had just begun.

Once again being pulled from his head, noticing Remus and Peter now joined them along with the other Gryffindor first years. As Well as a divine scent of the grand feast now in front of them. All eager to pile their plates high their hands dashed to grab ladles and tongs full of meat cuts and potatoes. He Noticed Peter actively avoiding the vedge.

“Looks like we’re all in the same house, though I don’t recommend any of us taking Divination with how our predictions went,” Remus said, trying to be heard above the noise in the hall.  
“Even if we did guess right, why would we take it? No one can read the future- it’s useless” Jame answered back  
“I don’t know about that, my great aunt predicted that in a few generations a pureblood will destroy all thoughts surrounding their family- and look, Sirius is here!” peter rambled on

“I don’t think I’ll be doing my ‘family thought breaking’ but who can tell,” Sirius said with false confidence. He knew he would never change his family- he was too weak to truly stand up but stupid enough to get blasted off the tapestry.

“HEY it could be me you know I’m also a pureblood thank you very much” James mocked being hurt, silently asking for the banter to continue 

“The only thing you’ve disproven about the potters so far is that they don’t all have perfect hair” ruffling James bird's nest of hair.

“My hair is perfect the way it is thank you very much, sides what peters insane aunt said is probably a silly thought or something she made up to get a good grade”

“That’s uncalled for James, don’t call Peter's great aunt insane. Sides your just butthurt that you have the worst hair here” spoke Remus, tho he avoided the other’s eyes once he’d said it.

“Oh shut up” the other boy mumbled going back to his food in hopes of hiding his embarrassment, while no one noticed Remus actively shrink into himself- a strange watery smile finding its way onto the brown-haired boy’s face.

And with that, the four boys settled back into science, though unlike last time it was comfortable. One that only found with friends. Friends. Is that what you could call these boys who met not even a day ago? 

Well its the word they’re using. 

A while later, filled with jokes and questions amongst students, pudding was brought out. Chocolate lava cakes, icecream, biscuits and so much more. Even after all the food, the boys had just eaten they grabbed as much for the puddings as they could, petter grabbing everything within reach, James the same, and Remus' plate covered in chocolate.

“Sirius you should try this cake it’s amazing” Remus urged, strangely starting the conversation change, and already going to get him some  
“Actually I’m allergic to chocolate” and the knife was dropped, the chocolate-loving boy looking hurt  
“Are you serious?”  
“ deadly. Last time I ate it I think I puked out half my body weight”  
“Gross” peter whispered  
“Ya know you missed a great chance to make a pun of your name right? Are you serious, I’m always Sirius get it?” James said.  
Everyone turned to look at him- Remus looked exceptionally anguished 

“I don’t think I'll get to say this again for a while but you’re a genius, James.”  
James let out a huff, once again clearly faking being hurt while flinging a bit of chocolate to hit Sirius chest  
“Perish demon you shall mock me no more I banish you with your weakness, perfect milky chocolate” playing along Sirius leaned back a bit bring his arms up to cover his face like a shield, and hissed  
“Dang you foolish mortal why did I let out my biggest secret ughhhhh”

And with that stupid act done they burst out giggling, drawing the attention of some of the first-year girls who looked at them in confusion before returning to their convo

“Oh merlin did you see that” James changed the subject quickly  
“What” peter sighed- wanting to focus on the food  
“How pretty that girl with red hair is”  
“No. we didn’t. She looked for a second” this time it was Remus looking very confused at what James was going on about  
“she's gonna be my future wife I can tell. When we get up I’m gonna find out”  
“James, what are you saying, you don’t know her, and you're planning to marry her? Get a grip boy” Sirius slapped James round the back of the head playfully.  
“Fiiiinnneeee I’ll get to know her then decide does that make you stools happy?”  
With some reluctant nods of agreement, they settled back into their puddings, making small talk.

Soon after students had started to finish Dumbledor called for silence and excused the upper years to head to their common rooms, asking some to remain to take back the firsts years. 

Unsurprisingly Slytherin and Gryffindor had the most stay back, all for the same reason. Sirius Black.

Making their way through the halls, Sirius had two fith years stay very close, keeping an eye on the few Slytherins stalking them like they were waiting for an opening to snatch and suffocate Sirius. After seeing they wouldn’t get one they backed of and everyone became a lot more spread out and louder, starting with an outburst from a fire red-haired girl.  
“JUST LEAVE ME ALONE POTTER” as she stomped off to join her new friends.

James dragged his feet as he moved over to the boys, Sirius moving to sling an arm over his shoulder  
“Cheer up mate, you have seven years to make her your friend now did you get anything outa her?”  
“Nothing except what we already know. Lily Evans.” 

“Right first years this is the entrance to the common room” on of the 6th years said, dramatically showing off a painting, who was also acting as tho she was blushing at the ‘grand’ gesture “this years password is abstinence- please don’t forget it we don’t want another incident where a first-year ends up getting stuck outside all night” and with that, he turned to the fat lady, and the portrait opened up.

The common room was packed with Gryffindors all talking to each other and welcoming back, the fireplace burning with reds and golds. A prefect came and pointed everyone to where their dorms would be- warning all that neither gender could sneak up to the other dorms.

Surprisingly the four boys were all roommates. Peter ran much faster than he should have to claim a bed by the door, leaving the other boys to claim their beds and sort out the trunks. Within 20 minutes all the boys were in bed, most snoring. 

Sirius, however, was sitting awake in bed, terrified of the howler he was sure to get tomorrow. Shrieks and curses being cut into him. He could only hope it wouldn’t be in front of everyone in the great hall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also if I've tagged this wrong please tell me, I'm still getting a hang of the tags themselves even after years of this site


	2. homesick nights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Second night at Hogwarts and the boy's cant sleep.
> 
> (a nice short chapter to hopefully create some character building)

The ruffling of blankets moving about kept filling the darkroom. The twisting and turning of boys, all hoping to simply fall into the sweet abyss of sleep, but to no prevail. The boys were trapped in a constant state of consciousness, suffering from the thoughts that plague their minds. One boy took a deep sigh before they spoke.

“This isn’t working. Peter, Sirius, Remus, grab your pillows and blankets, we’re sitting on the floor and talking” James spoke, patting his bedside table in hopes of finding his glasses in the dark. Sirius silently walked over and casted a quick luminous, helping the boy while the other two grumpily did what was asked. 

When they had formed a nest of squishy comfort on the floor they collapse into a mess of limbs.  
“What now James, we did this stupid blanket nest thing how does this help with sleeping hmm? It doesn’t. Useless” Remus said, already planning on pulling a pillow over his head. James looked a little shocked at Remus’s words- the other boy had been relatively kind yesterday and while a little more closed off today, this felt rather strange. Maybe the boy was missing home?

“Remus, what on earth are you saying? This is hardly useless. We’re all having trouble sleeping yeah? Why not treat this as a sleepover type thing to get our minds off it”

“Sorry James, not all of us enjoy messing up their beds”

“Remus, how about we calm down. Sides this could be fun- we all seem to have something on our minds… What exactly do people do at sleepovers?” Sirius said. He didn’t understand why Remus was acting so different from how he had at the feast- more like the train. Not to mention his embarrassment at never experiencing a proper sleepover. The boy chose not to think it over much more, hoping this thing would be an escape from the thoughts of home.

“I don’t really knowwww its just something I heard about and it sounded right” - “you’re using it wrong”- “thank you, oh great smart Remus, however, I choose to ignore that and any other helpful inputs like that you have from now on. Out of friendship of course”

“Right James, and totally not to protect your ego,” Peter Said from behind his three blankets.

“I’ll have you know I have not got an ego thank you very much, now fun news. When mum was uhh packing with me she brought this muggle board game. We should play it. Could help us get over our homesickness right?”

While James scrambled to dig through his trunk trying to find the game, Remus shared a puzzled look with Sirius. Who said anything about home sickness? If anything Sirus was happy to be away from home, heck he was fearing going back. Although he had no clue what was Remus problem. He would have thought the other would be homesick considering he’d been very closed of at the start.

“Monopoly?” Peter asked, he’d taken three blankets off, giving them to the slight shivering Remus who still hadn’t used them. 

“Yeah, it’s apparently a good game- long though. Me and my parents played a game of it and i think I’ve got the concept down well. I’ll explain it to you” Jame started, rattling on about the rules and how they’d change them slightly so it wouldnt be a 6-hour game. It was rather funny hearing him explain it for Remus and Peter who both had played this game many times as kids. Peter more so with many different opponents. 

“Right now you’ve all got the starting money, ill give you a single property to start the game up a bit.” Sirius looked down at his card, fleet street. He had no clue if it was any good though. It was Remus who roled first, 14. James commented about flying across the board to which Remus reposed with buying the properties he landed on.

The game carried on for about an hour, before a major thing happened. Peter landed on Mayfair. The first time it had been landed on. He immediately brought it- having already got park lane. While the other boys sat staring in misery as they watched any chance of winning break Peter laughed manically, already counting out the money to get houses. 

James was the first victim to Peter, but not before Sirius Reds and Yellows roughed him up for most of his money. Remus was the next, though he managed to survive it- having landed on free parking and grabbing around 2000s worth of cash. However, he didn’t survive the next time he landed on it, handing over a whole £20 to Peter. 

“How about we end this now Sirius, I’ve won. Admit defeat not even Remus can beat my luck”

“ Perhaps the stars shall aline in my favor and ill just skip your properties. By the way, you’re looking a little low on cash their Peter, and look at what you coming towards.” Peter followed where Sirius was looking in horror. The dark-haired boy had brought the Pinks, Oranges, Reds, and yellows all with at least three houses on- some with hotels.

To say the least the next two rounds were a masecure- Peter didn’t stand a chance. 

“How on earth did you win that Sirius”

“Beginners luck. Not to mention you two had almost given up when Peter got that set, I may have not been listening to your rant about how that’s the best set to get to win, which by the way seems useless now. Either way, it most likely won’t happen again”

“Jesus, well either way that exciting game tired me out enough to forget about my homesickness to sleep- night guys,” Peter said, grabbing his blankets and pillows and going back to his bed, the boys all said goodnight to him.

“So James what was eating you up that you couldn’t sleep”

“Simply missed my parents, mainly mums cooking. Ill probably head to bed to- night guys, hope this helped your home sickness to” He said with a smile.

Sirius waited till he heard the two snoring before whispering to the boy still next to him.

“It’s not homesickness is it. Your back to how you were on the train- as though you’re trying to not get too close but like you still want friends. So, what’s up”

“Nothing,” Remus said, not looking Sirius in the eye.

“Ya know while you all seem to think I’m not as smart as you, It seems I can read you all better than each other. Your not looking me in the eyes- something you did yesterday- and your answers are either short or have aggressive undertones when you’re focusing on not talking to us. However, when we were playing the game you talked to us as though you haven’t been a dick the past day. So I ask again. What’s up” spoke Sirius, even in a hushed whisper the power in his voice almost forced Remus to meet his eyes.

“You’re not gonna let this go, are you”

“Obviously not”

“Fine. I’m just, not used to having friends- normally what with my…. mother sick most don’t want to come near or stay since I often leave to stay by her side. Not to mention my father whos...Scary to say the least. Friendship is strange so I suppose I’m acting strange.” the boy stopped at some points, clearing thinking of what to say. Though if it was to make it up or phrase it right, Sirius didn’t want to assume. It made sense to not tell him anything- they had just met a day ago.

Sirius decided to keep an eye on Remus though- if his mum was sick he’d probably need someone to help him. That’s what these boys could be. Sirius simply nodded, patting Remus on the back, not sure what to do exactly and saying they should go to bed.

The boys fixed their beds and before Sirius could draw the curtains Remus asked.

“What about you?”

Sirius answered with a smile. “homesick”


	3. charms of classes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys actually go to lesson, shocker I know, and Sirius is good at art now.
> 
> Also, we see the start of Sirius love for dogs

“I’m telling you mate Slughorn hates me” James whined, leaning on Sirius as the four boys made their way down the hall, twirling through other students all fussing to get to their classes.  
“Probably cuss your almost as bad at potions as Remmy here- no offence Remmy”  
“None taken, and stop using that stupid nickname you stool”  
“I’m sorry, who's the one whos passing potions again? Oh yeah ME so I must ask how am I the stool you fool?”  
“Academic intelligence and common sense are to separate things, and you my dear friend really lack in the second one” 

Sirius was shocked and stared at Remus in mock hurt. He did not lack common sense; he just had a different kind thank you very much. And so what if he then couldn’t follow it that doesn’t mean he lacks it. Ok so maybe it does but still.

“Can’t come back from that Sirius? I suppose Remus won this time.” peter spoke, speeding up a little he added “Now we need to get to transfiguration else will have the old cat on out trail handing out detention, again”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sirius was doodling on his notebook- a detailed picture of a big dog he’d seen in his dreams- listening to McGonagall's speech about teacups and bunnies when a paper plane landed on his desk in front of him. Checking she hadn't seen and wasn't watching he opened it up and found a note.

Better watch you back little lion I’m sure your parents won't be to please- especially if you keep hanging around those lesser than you. Be safe and hang out in the snake pit. We don't bite- much. You may even wish to join our house- I'm sure it's not too late.

Even if you don't wish to, I feel as though for your safety at home, this might be the best bet you have.

Think this over. Please.

Sirius looked around the room, hoping to find someone in green looking at him. Unfortunately, he found no one, all either looking at the professor or their pages where they were erratically scribbling down words.

In Fact, almost everyone was.  
Remus nudged Sirius with his elbow then passed a note to him saying he could copy anything he missed while he went to ‘fairyland’ after lessons. The dark-haired boy gave him a grateful smile before actually paying attention to what McGonagall was saying. 

“Now class transfiguration is all about imagination. From something as giving a teacup a pair of legs, to transforming a house to a castle- or even yourself into something you must imagine it and imagine it clearly. While the effects of not doing so won't be dire with a teacup, it most likely just breaking, transfiguring yourself could lead to serious damage. Though not to worry as we don't do serious human transfiguration till 7th year in further transfig- something most of you won't be taking” she lectured as she strode from behind her desk to lean in front of it.

“However none of that is really needed in this lesson - that was simply an introduction I suppose- this lesson we will be seeing how far our personal magic and imagination can take us. Now if we could al- yes, Mr wood?” 

“Umm, sorry, but what if you're not from, you know, a uhh, wizarding family? we - or at least i- though I assume everyone like me is feeling this don’t know magic?”  
A round of snickers could be heard from around the class at the stuttering boy, witch received a disapproving look from McGonagall.

“I was just getting to that, however, please do not feel that it was a stupid question. No question in this class could ever be stupid” she answered with a smile before continuing” now to do this task you must all take some parchment and a quill and draw. Please make it as detailed as you can- however your skill for drawing won’t limit you; it is merely a base. The real skill will come from your imagination for how good it is when you cast the spell partum with this wand movement. Now go and create.”

Lots of the Ravenclaws scrambled to start- not even thinking of something, much to McGonagall's dismay, followed shortly by the Slytherins, then the rest of the class. Almost most of the class. There, Sirius sat just looking around the class not even touching his quill. 

McGonagall chose not to call him out though, wanting to see what a difference this time will make in his one. Finally, Sirius picked up his quill and started drawing, the sound of his squill scratching joining the others filling the otherwise silent room.

A Ravenclaw kid finished his first, and everyone stopped to look at it, a small grey thundercloud got drawn out of the page, zapping it with a small bolt of thunder and lighting up the kids pleased grin.

“Wonderful, 10 points to Ravenclaw for being the first to cast the spell- and performing correctly. However, I would have preferred a bit more creativity next time, but we can work on that. Now all of you back to your work.”

And with that the class burst into noise, people chatting in excitement, some boasting about how amazing thiers will be. Anyone who was looking could see McGonagall had a small smile on her face at the sight of them enjoying the class- mentally thanking the Ravenclaw for showing the class the fun in this activity.

40 minutes later, and the class was full of creations, only available from a child's mind. Walking ice creams with faces, badly deformed horses, multiple forms of weather ( seriously it looked like someone had bottled up all the season and placed them in one room) and so much more.

Almost everyone had made theirs and were showing them off and playing with them, much like James who was playing with a golden snitch he had made as he waited for the long-haired boy next to him to even start casting the spell.

“Sirius, pssst, come on I’m bored and wanna see what you're doing. Its taking foreverrrrr and class is almost over” the other boy whined, pouting as he tried to see over Sirius’s shoulder to get a peek.

“Mr Black, I’m going to have to agree and unfortunately ask you to stop drawing and cast the spell.” came the voice of McGonagall from in front of them, startling them both who hadn't even noticed her presents.

Sirius nodded and slowly drew out his wand and placed his drawing in the middle of his desk. A few students who were looking over gasped at the drawing, a detailed drawing of a multi-headed dog. A greyscale drawing and a bit deformed with slightly too large paws but generally, it was perfect,

Casting the spell the hound grew out of the paper, enlarging twisefold and the too big paws becoming more visible along with its now clear doglike grin on its face. Even more impressive were its eyes, a shimmering gold, filled with small specks of black and a whirlpool of red hidden behind layers of gold in his eyes.

A couple of students stepped back, scared of the beast, and that caught all the students attention. All the creations now forgotten slowly started fading away and the classroom corrected itself. The scared students multiplied when Sirius started to pet the hound on its middle head, the right head turning around and biting his wrist.

The students all winced but Sirius simply stopped petting the head, bopped the right head's nose and then started petting the dogs back.

“Well, Mr Black it seems you have a talent with transfiguration- and a wonderful imagination at that 20 points for Gryffindor for one of the most amazing creations I’ve seen in all my years of teaching.”

With that Sirius looked up at her- only now realizing he had an audience. He returned her statement with a smile and returned to petting the dog.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“THIS IS UNFAIRRRRRRR your making all the teachers love you, first Slughorn then McGonagall what's next our herbology teacher? Dumbledore???” James whiny voice came out from the halls for what must be the millionth time that day.

“I don't ask for them to like me, James, heck I don't think either actually likes me just my skills, sides might as well have a good rep before I start to do something bad right?” 

“ Oh, and you're going to do something bad, Siri?” Remus chimed in, teasing Sirius with a nickname as had done early 

“Probably yeah, I mean it's bound to happen eventually right?” 

“ suppose so” 

“Maybe we can use this to our advantage- like when we pull a prank we can- GAH” James started before he was interrupted by tripping on the hound from earlier.

Sirius had refused to get rid of it- claiming he's going to show it off though Remus thought he was lying but didn't speak on it. McGonagal had let him, as long as the dog stayed with him the entire day and it was gone tomorrow. Sirius had smiled so brightly at her the boys were sure Sirius could have asked for the dog to stay for the entire time at Hogwarts and she would have agreed.

The boys started giggling as James righted himself, glaring at the innocent-looking dog.  
“ he has it out for me. I swear that's the 5th time!” 

“ or perhaps you just can't watch where you step since the dogs are almost always next to me?” Sirius reputed.

And with that the boys started to talk amongst themselves, chatting away about anything and everything, not minding the stares they got because of the large three-headed dog next to them or the fact that James tripped over it twice more before getting the great hall for dinner.

They sat in the same seats as always, the dog laying down on Sirius feat, calmly. 

The boys ate almost the same way as every other night, only changing the different cuts of meat and the deserts.

“Still can’t believe you can't eat chocolate- I mean what have you done for God to give you such a horrific punishment,” Remus asked, referring the first night’s convocation 

“one, yeah it sucks since almost all of the deserts my family ever had were chocolate two, you're religious?”

“Oh no, I’m not religious at all and your parents seriously did that while knowing you couldn't have chocolate? Like I understand on maybe occasions having a chocolate pudding but at least they would make something else right?”

“Oh no they never learnt how to cook- pretty sure mother would burn water if she tried- and everyone else likes chocolate so it was a norm I suppose” Sirius shrugged off, hoping to avoid the real reason.

“Still, I don't think I could live ith out chocolate” 

“Mate from all the chocolate you’ve eaten around us alone I wouldn't be surprised if you were 40% chocolate” Peter butted in

“If I was, I think I would eat myself at that point” Remus jokes.

James joined into the conversation, finally focusing on something over than the red-haired girl a few seats away,  
“We all done? Let’s head back to the common room yeah?”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The sounds of a crackling fire could be heard along with the soft sound of pages turning and a dog breathing. It was 2 at night and Sirius was wide awake, sitting by the fire reading a book Remus had lent him after learning he had never read any muggle books and the dog next to him.

Everything was peaceful and perfect, the story of Frankenstein filling Sirius' head and slowly lulling him to sleep.

When a 6th-year prefect came down at 6 am, they stopped and looked at the soft scene before them, before waking the dog and running out quickly- deciding not to comment on it.

The dog nudged Sirius awake, getting a final ear scratch before he vanished to- as the other creations had. Sirius made his way upstairs and fell into bed thankful for not being seen by anyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ayeeee I UPDATED, not over my writer's block for this fic but I needed to get these chapters out. The next chapters kinda long ngl and while I could split it in two, I won't be cuss that requires effort. Also, I'm realising I don't actually know how to start fanfics, since they all start with someone speaking.
> 
> kudos are appreciated, though I don't think they really do anything
> 
> (updates every Saturday unless I get a writer's block and run out of pre-written chapters to publish)


	4. positioner of pranks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James as an amazing idea and Sirius learns something about something Idk man I wrote this awhile ago and forgot whats going on

Sirius didn’t understand what he’d done wrong. All he knew was that James was angry and slapped him, and Peter and Remus looked hurt.

“I should have known, you're exactly like your family black, how you’re in Gryffindor I have no clue but you’re not one of us that's for sure” James spoke, rage painted on his face.

The words cut deep into Sirius, feeding on his constant doubts about his placement. He knew he wasn’t like them, he did, but James thought he was- and James wouldn’t lie to him.

Sirius went to ask what he meant, but James had just left along with Peter. He looked at Remus, who was still standing there, looking at the other boy.

“Remus please, what did I do? Why did James suddenly slap me? Please” he begged

Remus’s face flashed in a rainbow of confusion, sympathy, sadness and something Sirius couldn’t describe  
“You don’t have a clue, do you? Think about this Sirius, what were we talking about?”

“We were speaking of dumb traditions muggles and mudbloods” Remus flinched “ for hallow- why did you just flinch?... was it the word mudblood?”

“Yes, Sirius its that word. You shouldn’t say it- at all” Remus informed, a clear tone saying try to disobey him. 

But now Sirius was even more confused,  
“What do you mean don’t use it, its what they are Remy- it’s just a name and my family always called them that”

Remus spoke to Sirius in a kind tone, dripping with pity “ Sirius think, ok? Mud - blood, muddy, dirty blood? It’s not a nice word, just use muggle-born instead- I’m sure we can explain this to James and Peter. It’s going to be fine”

Sirius merely nodded, allowing Remus to guide him to where James and Peter were sitting in the half-empty common room. He didn’t understand. He knew he grew up different to the others - he’d be stupid, not to- but he didn’t believe that his parents would use a word like that. He knew it was dumb, but some small part of him hoped. Hoped his parents would have some good in them, but that hope was dwindling. 

“So you see James, its all a misunderstanding Sirius didn’t know what that word meant because no one told him” Remus finished, he’d explained it for Sirius since he seemed too spaced out, thinking over what had been said to him, to answer himself.

“Is that true Sirius?” James asked, a slight drop of hope in his voice.

A nod was the reply he got- but it was enough for James to pull him into a bone-crushing hug.

“Thank god mate- I think I would have jumped off the tower if I had to stay mad at you for too long”

“Um yeah sorry I’ll do better to not use that word- it might take some time but have patients yeah?” Sirius spoke, for the first time in 5 minutes.

“Course mate, and we’ll help ya yeah? Same with anything else” 

“Thank you. All of you”

“If we’re done with this sappy stuff, can someone help me with the potions homework? And by someone I mean Sirius- all of us suck except you.” peter broke the slight awkwardness with his request. Smiles broke out across all their faces and James and Rems quickly joined in asking for help from a very willing Sirius. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Remus walked into the dorm room to find what was by now a regular site, Sirius curled up in his bed reading some book, and the three-head dog re-created curled up next to him. Normally Sirius would fall asleep before he was able to vanish the dog and would end up cuddling it. All the boys had to admit it was adorable. Often wanting to take a photo of it and hand it to the entire school to see how cute Sirius is, but knowing the Raven haired boy would throw a fit if even someone thought he was adorable.

The dog sensed Remus entrance, alerting Sirius by placing a paw on his cheek the claws digging in ever so slightly. Remus would have winced if he didn’t know Sirius knew a very basic spell to heal them- tho often didn’t brushing them of saying ‘he couldn’t even feel it’.  
“Hey Siri, what are you reading this time” Remus greeted, walking over to sit on the edge of the bed cross-legged. He gave a quick scratch to one of the dog’s heads while Sirius placed his bookmark in the book and placed it on the pillows.

“Rereading Frankenstein. It’s rather romantic don’t you think?” 

“Romantic? Sirius, I think you’re reading the wrong book then since its a horror story- ya know that’s why you have the whole reanimate the dead and murder?”

“Yeah its obviously got hints of horror in it, but its also romantic in how the monster reacts with the world? The monster just wants to be loved by the world, loves it so much, but instead, its shunned and hated. Its in a sense an unrequited love story wrapped in a horror blanket. It villainises the monster yet makes Frankenstein look to be more hero-like, more human- yet he’s the one that made the monster and abandoned it, and does that really sound nice and human to you?” Sirius ranted, not noticing the slight tears forming Remus’s eyes.

As soon as Sirius started explaining what he meant, Remus replaced monster with himself. It felt too real, to like what he felt. He was terrified that Sirius had somehow found out. logically he knows that makes no sense, it’s only been two full moons, but his scars must be a big give away, right? From what he knew blacks were once werewolf hunters so it makes sense for Sirius to know how to spot one right? But even those thoughts where minuscule compares to the rush of happiness that maybe, maybe if Sirius could sympathise and see this sort of meaning in the Monster maybe he could do it with him.

Remus quickly whipped his eyes, thankful that Sirius had turned his attention to running his fingers through the dog’s fur halfway through his speech.  
“When you explain it like that, it seems almost obvious. Almost makes you think if maybe the author felt like that” 

“Mmm maybe- I don’t know if she’s a witch though from how she described how the monster was made id assume she might not be, though could have been covering it- since she was a woman in 1800s. Though maybe she knew someone else going through something like that and took inspiration from that. Still, it’s rather sad how people just class it an old horror” 

Sirius looked at Remus, a small smile on his face, offering the book, saying how he’d finished it anyway. Remus offered another book - Paradise lost - witch Sirius gratefully took. They started to talk about the homework they all had when James and Peter barged into the room.

“ I just realised something- WE SHOULD DO A PRANK!” James shouted into the room, running over to the boys, and Peter followed. All the others were perplexed as to where James got the idea they needed to do a prank but thought it could be interesting.

“And what prank would that be?” Peter asked, surprising Sirius and Remus who assumed he knew.

“ I didn’t think that far ahead but were smart so we can come up with something great, right?”

“Well if we’re gonna do this we aren’t doing something boring. Gods why didn’t you bring this up earlier we could have done something for Halloween” Remus said.

“And it would have been easier for ideas ughhhhh why is creative stuff so hardddd” Sirius moan, dragging out the letters in some words. 

“Well I didn’t think of it for Halloween so get those thoughts outa your head- maybe next year if this goes well,” said James. 

“We could do something more muggle like? That inspiration from a common muggle prank but make it magic” peter suggested

“Mate that brilliant!” Sirius shouted, “though I think I’ll be useless in picking the base idea.” 

“How about we mess up the toilets, cast a couple of charms and block the pipes, maybe make the water blast in peoples faces?” James suggested. 

“We could, but if you wanted something more muggle like, we could do some graffiti. Like painting on the walls and stuff- normally with spray paint, though maybe we could somehow change the paint to last longer” said Remus. 

All the boys turned to stare at him, not expecting him to have a plan that thought out- more thought out then theirs at least. Quickly all the boys broke into goofy smiles, thanking and praising Remus for his ‘genius, brilliant, amazing, perfect, amazing, wonderful idea’ causing the poor boy to blush brightly.

“Making it last longer might take some work and a lot of spells, depending on if we make our own paint it could lead to issues in it, and I don’t know how spells work with muggle chemicals all too well. We could make the paint smell like stuff instead though? Maybe make it sticky, so if someone touches it, they get stuck to it.” Sirius murmured.  
“Muggle chemicals don’t work well with magic?” James and Peter asked at the same time 

“Its a theory with lots of evidence to prove, it’s being tested at some places to see how much of a hazard it is to mix certain chemicals and magic together. They found that some compounds when exposed to some concentration to magic - not wizards though luckily- it ignites and has even been reported to combust in explosions. While it should be okay to use muggle paint and some charming spells, it might be safer to not do that till we’ve read up more on it and just make our own sort of paint as he suggested.”Remus said before questioning Sirius, “But Sirius from what I’ve gathered the Blacks HATE anything to do with muggles, why would you know this stuff?”

“Oh they do, more then I love muggle stuff, but a lot of old pure-blood philosophers and alchemists studied these kinds of things when we didn’t quite understand anything about muggle science. A lot of the workings are in the books they’ve written, unfortunately, due to a purge, when the wizarding world was attacked by a dark wizard, a lot of this information was destroyed. After all, books and memories can be changed for a lot of people. However, there were some books that survived due to hundreds and thousands of concealing charms with magic that I don’t think even dumbledore could understand- and he’s like thousands of years old right? But yeah, we have a lot of the books in the Black library, though my father restricts them since its still muggle stuff but its old and incredible magic that he wants to understand- but when has that ever stopped me.” Sirius drawled on, not noticing the boys all staring at him in shock.

“Bloody hell mate, turns out your not just a pretty face” James joked.

“Oh, I’m sorry I thought we already understood this considering I’M the one who always helps you with potions” Sirius joked back.

“Potions are easy.” 

“If that’s so then why are you failing it, James?” Peter joined in.

“Obviously because it’s so easy that James doesn’t need to know anything and the day of tests will just use his extensive knowledge and pass with 100%. Honestly, I don’t know how we didn’t see it” Remus finished the joke, the three of them giggling at James' expense.

“Ok, I get, what is it ‘mock James day’ well surprise it can’t be that every day of the year, this is bullying I tell you BULLYING!” James cried, raising his hand to his face and ‘fainting’ back and falling into Peter, who stumbled to catch the taller boy.  
“Get off me you big slug, your heavy” Peter whined.

“Jokes aside, let’s get back to the prank? So we agree to the graffiti idea?” said Remus.

“Yep, we should make our own paint- there’s probably some books in the library- so we can make it last longer, sticky and smelly.” Sirius joined.

“Well Sirius I think you’re probably going to have to actually make the paint, Remus could probably get the information for the potion, while me and Peter can get the ingredients and find somewhere to set up the cauldron, yeah?”. All the boys agreed to this plan, Sirius saying how he’ll help Remus with his since he has nothing else to do and the group split, wanting to do the prank as soon as possible.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sirius and Remus walked down the halls, heading to the library to start their research discussing plans for what they want when Sirius had a thought,  
“We never said who we’re pulling the prank on!”

“Oh yeah, I guess in all the joking we forgot to actually state who's our target. Knowing James' big thing and your small thing I’m assuming it's the Slytherins?” Remus said, exasperated at the problems the two have for no reason.

“I don’t have a thing with Slytherins thank you very much, sides no ones actively done something too bad to deserve this small prank to any of us” Sirius lied, knowing full well he’d been getting tons of notes about joining the ‘snake pit’ and that snape had mocked the other threes potion skills one time.

“Ahh but James leading this it seems so obviously we’re attacking the snakes.”

Sirius just shrugged, holding open the large wooden library door for Remus, who smiled thankfully and led Sirius in the direction of the potion books. They scanned the shelves, finding a few books they thought might have what they needed before heading over to a table and skimming through the thousands of pages. 

They got through four books, Sirius starting on his third when they heard the sound of a third-year Ravenclaw girl screech. She was pointing towards the piles of books as her friends went and got Madam Pince. The two boys were confused, wondering what had happened that made the girl screech.

“Is something wrong ladies that made you screech in my library?” Madam Pince asked, her voice wiry and scratchy.  
“ Yes miss, we were just wandering by when we saw that these boys were here a while, I assumed they were doing homework and thought I could help them find the right book. But when I came here I found them reading books from potions much higher than even what we’re doing, and the book ‘potions de la plus noire des mers’ a book that one, they shouldn’t be able to read since it’s in french, and two, Is banned in many libraries due to a lot of the potions being dark and using rare potion ingredients from endangered animals. It’s even scarier when you realise who's reading the book- the Black heir- I Just thought you should know I’m sorry for disturbing the silence miss” THe raven claw said with mock innocence as if what she said wasn’t utterly ridiculous. 

Madam Pince thought over what she said as the boys looked at each other before looking at the now smirking Ravenclaws, Remus went to speak up about this, but she spoke,  
“Well boys, ill have to confiscate the book and ask you to leave, however, I won’t take away any points since it’s my fault this book was out on the shelves. Thank you, girls, for informing me” and with that, she took the closed book and escorted the annoyed boys out of the library.

“What was that even about I mean if we can’t read it just take the book and let us continue our research ya know? Stuck up Ravenclaws, from how she spoke I bet she was hissy that we were reading ahead of them apparently. And we didn’t even get what we were looking for!” Remus grumbled, running his hands through his hair to calm himself down. He looked over at Sirius when he realised he hadn’t spoken yet. He raised his eyebrow at the smile on Sirius’s face.

Sirius rose his hand, showing a crumpled, ripped out page, a large title calling it ‘coloured artificial spin what was clearly Sirius handwriting over the french title.  
“I’m sorry for destroying a book, but I got the page and know we know what we need and how to make it”

Remus just stared blankly not understanding how Sirius got it when he voiced his question Sirius only laughed 

“When the raven claw was talking to Madam Pince I ripped the page and pocketed it, then closed the book so no one would know. No one was paying attention to me so it was easy”

“You are deviant and a genius and man was that great. But it seems this trip has solved two parts of our problem” At the last part Sirius looked at him questionably.  
“Who we’re pranking? I'm thinking the Ravenclaws now.” they both smiled and ran off to go find James and Peter.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The two boys found the others in the dorm room, looking over a sheet of paper that looked to have a plan on it, both whispering. They hadn’t noticed the new arrivals.  
Remus looked to Sirius, who looked back and nodded in a silent agreement.

“RAW” they both cried, giggling when they saw James shoot up right out of his chair and misplaced his foot falling over, and poor Peter knocked his chair so it fell backwards.

“ONCE AGAIN I SAY BULLYING” called James, helping Peter up as Remus and Sirius made their way over to the table they sat at. 

“Sorry James but you have to admit, it was perfect, no don’t give us that look, now, did you find a room?” 

“That we did dear Remmy boy” “Remmy boy?” “Remmy boy, now it’s on the floor below us behind a painting. You compliment this ghastly looking girl and the door swings open. We’re just thinking on how to get all the stuff up there” 

“Well, you only really need to get the ingredients, right? Since we can probably transform a cauldron instead of lugging one all the way there. I can distract Slughorn for you two with questions about extra potion work or some stuff for next year or something. He’ll go on a tangent like he always does when someone asks a ‘high-level question’ and should buy you enough time to sneak in, get the stuff and leave.” 

“Brilliant mate, Sirius while you do that Remus can stand guard then so that if Slughorn starts to head to positions he can run and get us. The perfect Heist.”James gleamed, putting his hand out and looking at the boys expectedly. Catching on Remus put his hand out, followed by Peter.

“What are you guys doing? Is this some kind of ritual, are you sacrificing me to the gods!!” Sirius shouted. Bringing odds looks sent his way from the others.

“No? It's a, ya know, a group hand gesture thing. We all put our hands over each other and then one the count of three lift them up, sometimes shouting something. Like a team handshake but no shaking of hands ya get it?” Peter so wonderfully explained. Sirius did not get it at all but nodded, bringing his hand over theirs and awkwardly following what they did.

It was horrendous and they all mutually agreed to never do that again. Ever. even if the world depended on it.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

They had it all planned out, Sirius would stop Slughorn at 5, knowing he always heads back to his classroom to mark papers at that time, while James and Peter would head straight there to get a head start at getting the ingredients. It would take around 20 minutes to gather it all so Sirius would have to stall for 15 minutes at least. It was really a simple;e plan, nothing should have gone wrong. Obviously, that meant it did go wrong.

Sirius was speeding along the halls, trying to make it to the point that they had decided he would distract Slughorn when he got pulled into an alcove by a pair of hands. Righting himself from where he stumbled he looked up to see his two out of three of his older cousins. 

“What the hell? I’m busy and I need to go, if it's important talk to me later, please? But this is Important” Sirius said, anger swelling inside at being distracted from his mission. Why today of all times to talk to him. 

“Wow, little cousin, who knew you would get so mad at us just for us wishing to talk. It won’t take long we promise, right Narcissa” Andromeda elbowed the third-year next to her.

“Mhm, it’s just 5 minutes I’m sure that will be fine, now we need to talk about Christmas. It's gonna be a hell storm for you- I’m sure you understand why- so we need some sort of plan.” 

“And why on earth would you help me? Both of you normally are fine when I’m getting ‘punished’ so what’s changed now?” Sirius bit back.

“ Sirius I understand why you’re mad about that, but we couldn’t exactly do anything to help, what we can do however is help you on Christmas when all the family gathers and supply you with healing potions in case something bad happens. Please let us help” Andromeda tried to persuade without sounding too posh.

Sirius considered the offer, focusing more on how much harder it will be to buy time for the others than on the actual question he’d been asked. He muttered a quick “I’ll think about it” before running off, leaving the two cousins staring after him, confused with how he acted with them.

Sirius sprinted the halls, knowing he’d need to be at least 5 minutes away from the classroom when he distracts Slughorn and hoping to make it. He knocked into a few students, who all glared at him but he hardly noticed, too caught up in thinking over what he would say when he found him. Turns out he didn’t have as much time to think it out as he thought as he crashed straight into Slughorn's back, knocking the papers he was holding flying into the air.

Sirius quickly righted himself, realising the Professor was on the floor he helped him up apologising 4 times before he finally took a breath. Looking up he saw Slughorn with a slight smile on his face, looking like he was stifling a laugh. Upon noticing Sirius now tilted head in confusion he spoke,  
“It’s ok my boy, no harm done, other than these papers thrown everywhere but that’s an easy fix” as he spoke he cast a quick charm, bringing all the strewn papers over to him. “Now could I ask why you were rushing so fast?”

Realising this was actually perfect Sirius quickly responded,  
“I was actually looking for you, I’ve been wanting to expand my knowledge on potions since I’m rather bored in lessons- not because of how your teaching though sir, please know that- but by what your teaching. It’s rather… simple. I was hoping there was something you could do to help me with this issue?” 

“Mm, I suppose I should have expected this considering you're the Black heir, and son of Waliga Black- truly an expert positioner, probably one of the best with her knowledge. I believe Snapes having similar thoughts to you, possibly Lily Evans as well. I could put you into a group of three, give you some work for next year if you’d like, we can talk to those two as well if they think they’re capable of that. However, that might take some time and could lead to issues next year with the same problems… I could give you your own project to work on if you’d like? Something to do in class and over your free time?” 

At the thought of doing more work then needed during free time, Sirius slightly grimaced. That would cut into time he could read, or hang with his friends. How had something that was meant to be a simple distraction gone so wrong. Although the proposal did sound good, being able to research something interesting rather than the potions he’s studied since he was 8 and watched his mother make since 4. It could even make his mother proud that he was working harder in his education and taking on personal projects. With this thought, Sirius smiled, agreeing with much enthusiasm.

“wonderful, while I don’t have anything to give you of the top of my head, ill have something prepared for your next lesson on Tuesday if I’m right. I’m assuming you don’t want to go along with the trio idea as well? Thought not. Why don’t you walk with me to my classroom and we can discuss what part of potions interests you the most hmm” Slughorn said, walking off in the direction of his classroom. Sirius really hopped the two had gotten the ingredients and that Remus had either been look-out or helped them.

Quickly stepping into pace with Slughorn, hoping that Slughorn slowed down when he realised Sirius was following and buy them some more time. No such luck.

“Now what parts of potions really spark an interest in you Sirius?”

“I don’t know, It’s interesting how different kinds of magic can affect a potion I suppose. Like how Ash wands tend to make better healing potions then say a Grenadilla wand, which works much better at breaking barriers. Obviously, the wood of the wand doesn’t mean the user suddenly becomes a master in that realm, or even can, but it does help. Also using wandless compared to using the wand.”

Slughorn stopped partway through what Sirius said, turning to look at the now rambling boy. At the end, he smiled, claiming how he thinks it would be a perfect choice to do his project on. He bid Sirius goodbye before walking off to his classroom.

Sirius really hoped the others had done their task done, and was a hundred per cent ready to moan to them about the extra work he’d basically given himself. He almost forgot about what his cousins had said. He knew that they were right in reality, that the notes the Slytherins had been sending him to come and join them, for his protection, were also true. But he didn’t think his pride could take to going to them and ask for help. Stupid lioness.

Although they had offered so it isn’t like he’s on his kneed grovelling so it shouldn’t affect his pride.  
As he’d said to his cousins, he’ll think it over.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The door slammed open as Sirius ran through, causing the three boys in the dorm to turn to look at him, seeing him panting and hunched over slightly.

“I’m never running the length of the school again. Not for food, not for classes, and never so we can get a prank done fast.”

“Sirius, why did you even run all the way here? You know what, no I don’t even care you prick, we could have messed this up and its all your fault” James accused. The other two agreeing with smiles on their faces.

“What are you talking about James? I know, I was two minutes late to catching Slughorn- but I think I made up for it in how I’ve got to do extra homework for the entire yearrrrr” He whined, walking over to the boys.

“That’s not- you were almost late to catching Slughorn? SIRIUS- nope not even the point this time, look. Look at the paper, do you see nothing wrong” Remus said, chucking the paper with the ingredients on at Sirius.

He caught the paper and stared hard at it, not seeing anything wrong with it. No ink splotches, no stains, all the words fully filled in. There was nothing wrong it was perfect and-

“It’s in french. I never translated it.” 

“Ding ding ding, that’s a winner - YES ITS IN FRENCH!” Peter shouted.

“We couldn’t read it so we had to grab a ton of everything- you can read french?” 

“You can read?” James joked.

“James. I know you have glasses, but surely you aren’t so blind as to miss me reading all the time you prick. Also yeah how else would I know it's the correct potion, Remus?” 

“Fair point. Either way, we grabbed a ton of everything so hopefully, there’s enough for the potion. Now next part of the plan, the cauldron. Does anyone know how to do that?”

“I’m pretty sure I remember a spell my dad used often at home, Just going to need a bowl- a base for the transformation since it's a much harder spell then we should be doing- we can probably get it at dinner if we’re lucky.” James offered. They all stared at him, not realising he was being serious.  
“What? My dad literally does potions for a living, and just randomly does potions in rooms that he shouldn’t do potions in. Isn’t it obvious that I learnt a few things?”

“Just didn’t think you could do advanced magic” Peter offered.

“I didn’t know you could do magic, to be honest.” Sirius quipped

“HA! That joke didn’t even make sense since we’re at a MAGIC school and we do magic on the regular, dumbass” 

“OH and the reading comment made sense when we’re at a SCHOOL, and you see me read on the regular?”

“Fair point.” 

“Still. Someone gets James a bowl at dinner, then we sneak out at night and Peter and I can show you two the room we found”.

“Yes Remus, Sir” the three shouted, saluting and laughing at the huge sigh that left the poor boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JESUS this chapter was long for me. I don't think the next one is as long but Idk just doesn't expect many more to be this long for a while.
> 
> (updates every Saturday unless I get a writer's block and run out of pre-written chapters to publish)


	5. squawking ravens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end of their first prank.
> 
> Also, I have a couple of GCSEs (mainly mocks) in the next two weeks so odds are I won't be writing as much and updates may be further apart

Part 4 of plan ‘greatest, awesomeness, start of our legacy of pranking’ was well planned, well thought out, and, well, going down the drain. The plan was magical. Literally 

The boys knew they wouldn't be able to swipe a bowl away, not with the house elves who watched them eat focusing on them. They needed a distraction, one that would cause everyone to look at it, and not draw them attention. Their first thought was to blow up something in the hall but was shot down quickly by Remus, saying how that could hurt someone and would require too much planning.

They stayed up for hours into the night, firing ideas at each other, hoping to find something that could work. They decided that messing with the food would be the best bet. The students it affected would scream, others would start checking their own food, and the house-elves would start panicking and fussing. They knew it was rather cruel on the house-elves, but hopped to make it up to them somehow.  
The issue was thinking about how to mess with the food. Peter had the idea of a rat, people would panic and perhaps the house-elves wouldn't feel the need to punish themselves. Unfortunately, they couldn't go through with it since they can’t control the rat to stay away from Gryffindor, or even be found. 

The next idea was to spike the pumpkin juice. Often they leave jugs of pumpkin juice, and water out so that the students can grab them as they need- it was a silly system but it was rather useful now. All they’d need to do was get to the hall early, very early, go over to the jugs, grab one and as they do that cast a hex onto it so it affects the drinker.

They decided James and Sirius would go to the jugs while Remus and Peter stayed at the table in case anyone came in-it would look suspicious if they all were there, and if James and Sirius were talking it would look natural. James would cast the hex- a simple one his dad had shown him at a birthday party- and Sirius would start talking loudly about something stupid.

“So mate, you mentioned earlier that you were late to catching Slughorn, what’s that about then,” James said as he slowly slid his wand out and started muttering spells

Sirius blanched, thinking of a lie he could use but instead chose to tell the truth,  
“My cousins came up to me- Andromeda and Narcissa - about Christmas break. Just a few things to know about when I got home since they’ve experienced the change at home first hand”. Maybe only half the truth

He noticed James nod and make a signal with his hand, the sign that the spells were done and picked up a jug of pumpkin juice, quickly walking over to the table with James hot on his heels with a few more. They spaced them out along the table and sat down just in time or the quick flood of students stampeding into the hall.

The boys quickly started chatting about upcoming homework, trying to look less suspicious when Remus was tapped on the shoulder

“Do you know why there are Jugs on our table but not the others?” Lily asked the first time she had willingly talked to one of the boys. James instantly went to look at her, mouth gaping like a fish, with that dumb lovesick look in his eyes. Lilly obviously ignored him, continuing to look at Remus for an answer.

“Uhh yeah, James and Sirius put jugs out since we got here earlier than normal and they were bored.” He supplied, quickly turning to look at the other boys, confused as to why she was talking to him.

“How are you, by the way, Lily? We haven’t really got to know each other, even though we’re in the same house- and you’re walking away from me” James moaned, head falling forward and banging on the table. 

“Mate, if she doesn’t want to talk to you now, she probably won’t ever. You’ll get over it if you accept that. And maybe if she sees you aren’t supposedly ‘in love’ with her she might want to be your friend after.” Peter said, hoping to cheer James up while not giving him false hope. It backfired disasterly.

“Peter that’s genius. If I back off and let her come to me everything will be better right?”

“The boys seeing it was hopeless moved on quickly where the conversation ended up to Sirius and what happened with Slughorn.

“So yeah now I have to do a whole big project about how wands affect potions while you lot get to do boring first-year potion work. Still think I have to do some of your homework though, unfortunately”

“That sucks dude- but at least you’re learning something kinda cool,” Remus said

“I guess, but I have to Present my findings on the last day of class, and it’s so unfair I-”

A shout sounded from the raven claw table, and soon many others followed as cat and dog ears sprouted from students' heads, or others ears grew large like an elephant. Many teachers started rushing around and the house-elves were quick to rushing around and gathering all the food, starting at the tables where the students where affected. Sirius quickly snatched a bowl and shoved it under his uniform just in time for Dumbldoor to announce that if you weren’t affected that they should head to their dorms and food would be delivered shortly.

The boys followed the excited students, all shouting about what happened. A couple Ravenclaws assumed a Grufindor had done it since none of them were affected. They made it to the dorm in one piece when Sirius pulled out the bowl, handing it to James with a smile.

“Can’t believe that actually worked mates- I mean I think a few people are suspicious of Gryffindor- but god James those spells where cool” Sirius gushed, going to sit on Remus’s bed opposite James’s.

James flushed, trying to wave it off as he sat on his bed along with Peter.

“They weren’t that impressive and will be easy for the teachers to fix. But yeah it was pretty good. Now tonight we will sneak to the room with our supplies and Sirius can start on the stupid, french magic paint. Its Saturday tomorrow so we don’t need to think about school.”

“One problem. How do we sneak out without being caught by Flitch and his creepy cat?” Remus questioned, lowering himself onto the bed with a slight winced that he thought no one noticed. He quickly pulled out a piece of chocolate from his pocket, shoving it in his mouth.

“Dear Remy boy, you see I have thought long and hard about this question, perhaps we be like ninjas and perfectly sneak our way in, or maybe we enchant Flitch with Sirius women like beauty”- “Hey you prick!”- “but alas nothing would work. Too hard I say to hard, for we are stumped in a room of darkness with no light except-” James was cut of from his dramatic speech by a pillow to the face from Peter.

“What he means is his Dad gave him an invisible cloak- a potter heirloom”

Both boys jaws dropped, totally ignoring James wailing of ‘Peters betrayal’, not expecting him to have that. They woke out of their shock, excited for tonight. 

“And here you lot said I was dramatic when little Jamsie here’s doing a whole Shakespeare piece to say he has an invisibility cloak.”

“To be fair Sirius. You are very Dramatic at times”

“Say that again and I shall run thy through with my wand after I Transform it into a sword forged in dragon's breath and christened in the blood a Phoenix, you foul chocolate monster!” Sirius shouted, half-joking, sending the boys into a fit of laughter. Remus, however, had a sad mist come to his eyes, forming a shield from the outside word after Sirius referred to him as a ‘monster’. The boys quickly split off into different conversations.

“Remus, you ok? I saw you wince earlier when you sat down, I just wanted to know if you were ok?”

Remus blanched, scratching at a new scar on his cheek he had gotten about a month ago from when he went home. “Mhm, just think I slept at a bad angle so my back hurts a little” Remus lied, hoping Sirius wouldn’t catch on.

“Mmm, that sucks when that happens, your going home in two days right? For your mum, how is she? Getting better I hope?” 

“She’s not getting worse, not necessarily better but it could be worse. I’m kinda scared, to be honest? Like I love her but I’m terrified of what could happen, and if it could put people at risk- I wouldn’t be in control to stop that and that’s a terrifying thought” Remus started before stopping himself, realising her had stopped talking about his ‘sick mum’ halfway through.

“Hey Remy, it’s not your fault ok, the worlds messed up and hurts good people- like you and your family- for no reason other than to shit with us. I might not know exactly how your feeling, or what you’re really going through, but I’m here if you need a rant yeah?” Remus simply nodded at that, head lowered in hopes of keeping the growing tears hidden. Hopes of protecting himself from the growing hope Sirius was feeding.

Noticing something was off with Remus, Sirius pulled the boy into a hug, not quite sure what to do since he’d only ever comforted his brother. They stayed like that for a little bit, Remus head buried in the other’s chest and Sirius rubbed his back. James forced them out of the hug with the mention of food, that got wolfed down in 15 minutes. The boys started packing and sorting out the stuff they would transfer to the room tonight as they waited for lights out.

And after lights out is a mess. First, they didn’t realise how small the cloak is when you’ve got all four boys under it and the ingredients. Because of this, they had to be careful that their feat wasn’t showing, something that they often forgot about. Second, it’s very hard to navigate stairs- moving ones at that- while huddled together. As they found out when Sirius tripped and fell down the flight of stairs as they changed directions, falling straight to the floor beneath. The three boys couldn’t go check on him for another 5 minutes because of the stairs and could only hope He was ok.

Luckily Sirius was fine, a few scrapes and bruises starting to form, but for how high he fell from he was lucky that was all. He heard footsteps coming down the hall, quickly rushing behind a statue of a great knight. Flitch came rushing down the hall, hunched over and the lantern casting the orange glow to flicker everywhere. Sirius didn’t breath, holding in his breath as the cat slowly padded behind the statue. It stared directly at him before doing a nod like head motion and running off back to Flitch. They left down the hall and not a minute later the boys were whispering for him under the cloak.

Stepping out he joined the boys under the cloak and finally made it to the room. 

It was rather barren, with candles being the only source of light, but was spacious and perfect for their lab to make home. Remus and Sirius went to setting the ingredients on a table they found in the corner while James started transforming the bowl to a cauldron and Peter to starting a fire like Slughorn had shown them in their 3rd lesson.

“Ok Sirius just, do something yeah? Should me and Peter head back to distract you less- Remus you stay to keep Sirius awake and as a safety precaution in case something goes wrong- or do you want all of us to stay?” James asked, checking over his spellwork on the cauldron.

“I think me and Remy should be good, give you two a chance to sleep tonight and make a cover story if a Perfect comes in to wake us again like last Saturday. Though James I realise I forgot to grab ink before coming down here could you rush up and grab some from my supply- I’ve got the most, in the third draw on the left bedside table, any colours fine but I need about 20 pots of the stuff”

“You have 20 pots of ink?”

“No I have 35 left- don’t question it I couldn’t answer why even if I wanted to. Though it’s coming in handy don’t you think?”

“Suppose so, come on then Peter lets leave out master potioneer and his caretaker to work” He giggled, pulling the short boy near him and under the cloak. The portrait opened and shut indicating the boys had left.

“Welp time to start, want to help me pour the water in the cauldron? Take to long by myself” Remus agreed and soon the cauldron was halfway filled, bubbling with little crackles.

“I’m going to go read my book, let you do what you need to do yeah? Call me if you need me” Remus said, walking over to a corner, far away from the cauldron and ingredients, nose squishing up slightly. Sirius ignored the strange behaviour- by now used to Remus strange reaction to potions- and started work of following the French instructions.

He had gotten to the 3rd step when the portrait opened and James stood, holding an armful of ink pots, he didn’t speak to either, just placed the pots down and left soon after.

“What book you reading? Think I’ll know it?”

“Nope, muggle book, called 1984, dystopian novel. I had read it behind my parents back as a child, though I didn’t get the real feel for it since there were too many comparisons to a Dystopian world and my life as a child. Being told what I can and can’t eat, or say, or do. We must treat olders with respect even though the only thing they have over us is their age and ‘authority’, they aren’t as fair as they possibly should be, and there’s always that fear that should you step out of line a fellow kid could tattle tail on you. Granted it’s on a weaker scale, but for a kid, it doesn’t feel like it and so the effect of horror is lost on them.

The reasons Dystopian worlds work so well in horror is because often the characters are written to be powerless, even if they fight in a rebellion is squished and useless. To adults whos ad a taste of this freedom and ‘authority’ it’s suddenly so different from reality that the true horror kicks in and it becomes dystopian like. 

Now though I really think I understand this book more, its a commentary on the author’s thoughts of Hitler and Starlin, though, at different ends of a political spectrum, both are frighteningly similar. I’m not that far through with the book though so I can’t give you much more than that.” Remus paused, realising he’d been ranting for a while now, and hoping Sirius hadn’t minded. He quickly changed the subject “hows the paint coming along by the way?”

“Oh great, it’s almost done. Do you know what time it is though? Cuss it’s going to have to boil to thicken both the texture and the smell for an hour or two, and I kinda wanna sleep.”

“It’s around 1:40am, you finish up and come sleep here while I stay awake- don’t worry about me falling asleep I’m pretty sure I’ve changed my blood with caffeine from all the tea and coffee I’ve drunk” Sirius hummed, putting in the last of the ingredients and heading over to Remus and sitting next to him. Remus promptly pulled him to lean against his arm, resting Sirius head on his shoulder.

It was quite, and calm, and the soft rhythm of Remus’s chest rising and falling as he breaths lulled Sirius into a dreamless sleep. Some time passed with Remus reading silently in the soft light from the candles, the only noise other than the ones the two boys were from the crackling and fizzing of the cauldron. 

The cauldron that was now bubbling over with a black fog coming out-  
“SIRIUS, Sirius wake up the cauldron, it’s fizzing over” The over boy quickly rushed to fix it, clumsy with sleep as Remus went to grab the bottles they had used to carry the water here. He handed them over to Sirius who bottled the potion, adding a different tree leaf in each.

“What are the leaves for? Shouldn’t they go in when the paints are still being made?”

“Nope, it’s an extra step to make a specific colour otherwise its just plain black cuss of my ink. Think we can sneak back up with the bottles without flitch finding us or are we staying the night?”

“I mean its rather late, I assume flitch has gone to bed right? Or at least won’t be near- can’t hear him anyway.” 

Shocked Sirius asked, “how would you hear them anyway? Were in a room with pretty thick walls and I don’t think footsteps would be loud enough to hear them till the portrait opens”. Sirius didn’t mean it to sound bad and had turned his back away from Remus, who was looking paler and slightly drawn back. 

They managed to move quick, getting lucky with the stairs, and in the dorm room without anyone noticing. James, the lightest sleeper in the group, woke up as they entered, looking at the bottles in their hands with a smile before going back to sleep, hugging his drool covered pillow.

“Gross” Sirius muttered as he went to get changed in the bathroom. By the time he got back ready to get into bed, Remus’s curtains were drawn. Thinking nothing of it, the boy drew his curtains closed to and promptly fell asleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“This can’t be a good idea James, I mean yeah it’s great that we’re going on with mine and Remmy’s idea of the Ravenclaws, but can we even get into Ravenclaw?  
Even if we knew the password for today, we haven’t a clue what it will be today thanks to the fact that they have a different riddle each day” Sirius whispered, pressed close to James and Remus as the four rushed through the halls.

“Sirius it’s fine I’ve got a plan for that”  
“Oh yeah and what’s that. Blow up the door?”  
“No that’s ridiculous. Its Remus”  
“Me?”  
“Yes you, you’re going to be the super-smart boy we know you are and unlock your inner Ravenclaw potential and get us through that door,” James said, pointing towards a painting of a man, surrounded by books. The man looked up from the book he was reading, smiled, slammed the book shut with a silent fwap, and questioned  
“ Hello, you wish to enter yes? I assume you know you must answer my riddle then right? Are you prepared for it- young Griffindoors?”

The four looked a each other, silently communicating amongst each other. Peter was shaking his head no, Remus looked like he wanted to leave and go to bed, and James and Sirius were grinning like the idiots they are. The two other boys already knew what was going to happen

“Heck yeah, we are. Give us this riddle then”

The man squinted his eyes at them, clearly studying them, causing Remus to shift uncomfortably and Peter to move back.

“What king can you make if you take:  
the head of a lamb  
the middle of a pig  
the hind of a buffalo  
and the tail of a dragon?”

“THE HECK KINDA A RIDDLE IS THAT?”

“The one of today, that’s what. Having trouble working it out?”

Sirius grumbled, walking over the wall and leaning against it.  
“Got any ideas, boys?” Peter and James both shook their head no while Remus just ignored them.

“A lion” The slim boy answered. 

“Correct my dear boy,” the painting said as it swung open, the man being hidden out of sight.

“What the hell Remus? How’d you get that?” 

“Sirius its both simple and stupid. You take the L from lamb, the I from pig, the O from buffalo and the N from the dragon. Now come on we have to paint these walls and start are ‘long wonderful, amazing, incredible’” “stop making fun of me” “ ‘other big words that I don't remember the legacy of pranking’. And no James. I won’t stop making fun of you. Its the one thing I was born to do”

The boys ignored James dignified squark and stalked into the Ravenclaw common room, Peters nose crinkling at all the bookshelves that lay around the walls.  
“So this is the tallest common room. One day we’re gonna beat them. I promise you that boys. Now, onto today prank. Paint these walls red”

“Not in the murder sence kids,” Remus said in a monotone voice, handing the boys the jars of paint and a large thick paintbrush.

Together the boy’s painted funny words and silly drawings on the walls, James being particularly proud of his ‘Ravenclaw? More like Ravenbore!’, while Remus thought it a stupid pun.  
“You hate all puns though Remus” Peter pointed out, quickly walking away and ignoring Remus answer to look at what Sirius had been doing.  
“Holy Salsvars balls, guys come look at this!”

The other two quickly ran to Peter and Sirius, seeing a picture of a Lion roaring, wrapped around a towers peak with a raven squawking at it from the air.

“Jesus, I knew you had art skill from transfiguration but damn that’s some next-level shit”

“James, mind your language”

“Bugger of Remus and let me enjoy the magnificence that is our friends and his artwork” Remus simply nodded ad went back to studying the artwork from the now hunched over Sirius. 

“We all done here then? Pretty sure its almost 4am and Flitch starts wandering around soon doesn’t he? And these walks look amazing, also think I’m going light-headed from the stench” Sirius quickly spoke, practically dragging the tree away from the art he’d done. He wasn’t embraced per-say, in fact, he was rather proud, but he still felt scared of others seeing it. It was probably one of the few skills he didn’t share with the world.

The boys rushed through the halls, to giddy with excitement, and judgment clouded with exhaustion to worry about making a racket, and quickly ended up in bed passed out for the next few hours, hoping Remus’s alarm clock charm would wake them up early. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“HURRY, move your fat ass, Sirius, Peter no time for a shower, REMUS WAKE UP, Jesus it’s like controlling a pack of zombies”

“James if you don’t shut the heck up, I will shove my wand through your neck” Remus grunted, finally moving out of bed, surprisingly the last one.

“No need to be so violent Remy. We can just ruin his reputation in front of ‘the great, wonderful, pretty, gorgeous, flower with Gryfinoor red-haired girl, Lily’. Hurt him the same amount.” Sirius joked, now in resh clothes and walking to stand next to the over-excited James who was ‘cheering’ them on.

It took 10 minutes, much to James is disapproval, but the boys finally ran out of their dorm, and soon down the corridors, lots of older students shouting at them.

“Remmy, whats a Jesus?” Sirius whispered after being sat down, still not knowing what James had ment.

“One, its whos Jesus not what, two, its a thing from a religion, I thought you knew this?”

“Not really? Religion isn’t really apart of wizarding society much, only know about it because one of our tutors were religious, though as soon as my parents found out they quickly fired him. Sad really, he was one of the best we’d ever had.” Remus nodded and then the two joined the other conversation, a very serious and important discussion about milk or cereal first.

“James please, stop, you can’t win this, its cereal first. If you put milk in you get too soggy cereal and cereal that has no sog to it. But milk first it’s just better”

“No no no I promise you milk first is better because-” James never got to finish his stupid point because a large swarm of Ravenclaws entered the building, all shouting at the Professors about the paint on the walls. 

The boys had tp stifle their laughs, waiting till either everyone else laughed or they got back to their dorm. McGonagal managed to calm the squawking Ravenclaws down and got the head boy and girl to explain it.

“We come down and see our walls covered in these words and pictures, the stench they put of is horrendous and worse than the smell of magical creatures class. We managed to get a couple words of but the rest out spells wont work on.” 

At this, a couple first-year students started laughing, especially the muggle-born kids who realised they’d been pranked. A point that was stated by McGonagal, to witch the Ravenclaws blanched at.

“Then something wrong with our painting door right? I mean it isn’t possible for someone to guess the answer to our riddle” The head girl quickly spoke.

A third year with shoulder-length hair spoke up next  
“ they could have. It’s only a riddle- not that hard a thing to guess. Especially when you consider that the answer was Lion, speaking of, odds are it was a Gryffindor. The riddles always fit the first person that tries to enter right? Makes sense, no?” 

The hall burst out into a cacophony of noise, most laughing at the disgruntled Ravenclaws. The boys finally let out the laughter they’d been holding in, covered by all the other noise. The professors scent all the students to their respective wings, the headmasters of each house deciding to give a lecture about the problems caused by this, while the others sorted out the problem.

“Bloody hell mate “ “James” “ bugger off Remus, that was incredible! They all seemed so shocked- especially when they realised someone had guessed the answer to their riddle!”  
“Shhh James don’t be so loud, we don’t want anyone to realize it was us just yet” Sirius whispered, dragging the four to the corner so they could muck around while McGonigal spoke to the entire house.

All in all, it was a pretty successful start to a long legacy; made all the sweeter when they found out they couldn’t remove Sirius artwork for two more weeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and the prank is done. Ngl I've already gotten stumped with this fic- I have the baseline for it down but I'm starting to dislike a lot of it. It feels too mary seu like so I need to change it before it gets too far. I hope I can fix it but if not expect a long time of no updates in like a couple of chapters I think?
> 
> but also wonder who that third-year raven claw is... I mean it's kinda obvious but yeah. He shall be important in future chapters (I hope) 
> 
> Right don't know if I've mentioned this but I'm gonna take a break from the main series, as in I won't be adding any more chapters set past this chapter. I never REALLY liked the baseline for the fic but I've had some ideas so I've been changing it. I also don't enjoy how little character development I have right now along with the friendship. Also even though I lowkey hate guilty Remus I need to add it, at least for a little. 
> 
> updates every Saturday unless I get a writer's block and run out of pre-written chapters to publish


	6. Christmas cracked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ITS CHRISTMAS, well not for us it's passed it for us, but not for the marauders.

“Students please this way, this way, follow me to go to Hogsmead! Now, remember, we leave entirely at 4 so don't be late or you will be left behind. If you need any help there are teachers littered about so feel free to ask them. And no underage drinking please- and older years don't buy the younger years the drinks for them or it will be detention for a week.” McGonagall’s voice called out, addressing almost the entire school who had come to the Hogsmeade trip. A Lot of the upper years had left quickly- some even missing the speech.  
“And with that, Go have fun!”  
It was a horrific, Friendzy of a battle. Students pushing and shoving each other to get to the different stores, some couples going on dates hoping to get the ‘perfect spot’. Remus was pushed around the most, almost falling over and being trampled if it weren't for James pulling him out the way in time. The boys stayed near Mcgonagall, keeping clear of the worst of it before finally leaving for the town.

“Where to first boys?” James asked, avoiding 2 loud 4th years charging down the street.

“Can we go to Honeydukes? I need more chocolate, I’m running short and I’m sure you lot need more to buy now”

“100% I’ve run out of sweets too and I don’t think I can last another day without some sugar” Peter replied to Remus, and quickly dragged James and Remus in the store- Sirius quick on their tails.

“Think they sell anything non-chocolate here that's not disgusting?” 

“Course they do Sirius, what never been here before?” James joked, slightly confused as to what Sirius was saying.

“Uh, no not really- we weren't really allowed out of the house unless it was to flu to our parent’s friend house with them. The first time we really went out was to get my school supplies- and most of those we had owled to us. Only my robes and wand we actually went there physically.” Sirius spoke, turning around and looking at the shelves of sweets to hide from the other boy’s wide eyes at his lack of childhood.

“That sounds so… boring. You didn't have friends outside of your parent’s circle? Didn’t go out for birthdays? Nothing at all?” Peter asked.

“Nope. Don't really celebrate birthdays unless it's our 11th, 18th, or were the head of the house. My 4th was celebrated however since I was starting my lessons then.” 

“I'm sorry lessons at 4? What lessons on how to colour in the lines?”

“Could you drop it, James?” Sirius snapped, grabbing a fist full of random sweets and stalking off to a different display.

The boys did as asked and dropped the subject, all rushing to grab their favourite sweets and pointing out good ones to one another. By the end of it, Peter had spent all but 2 sickles left, Remus had what should have been enough chocolate to last a year- all the boys knew it wouldn't last a month with Remus- and James had a wide range of sweets in a bag that he was going to share out. Sirius had brought what was in his handful, not knowing what he’d brought.

“Where to next?” Sirius asked, walking behind the boys since he had no clue where he was going.

“Scrivenshaft, I need some coloured ink since I'm mixing up my notes and new quills since I broke all of mine” James answered, leading the boys there.

“I never understand how you managed that- I mean breaking one or two is fair I suppose but all 10 of yours? It's only been a few months as well. I don't know if I should be impressed or disappointed in you, James.”

“We should be disappointed, Sirius. Very disappointed. Evan Peters only broke 1 quill and do you see how much pressure he puts on the poor things? I'm surprised the tip is still sort of a point- and at least me and him have an excuse of never having used a quill before” Remus spoke.

“Look ok, if I knew how I did it id tell you but I don't. Now stop judging me or I won’t pay for tea” and with that threat, the boys shut up. None of the boys really knew why James was paying for them but they all accepted it when James argued for 10 minutes with Remus over it. The only one who’d managed to escape it was Sirius who claimed it be stupid to make James pay when he had enough money to buy the shop itself.

They entered the almost clear store- a vast difference to Honeydukes- and were grateful for the change. They spaced out easily and James headed to the coloured ink followed by Remus and Peter who thought James idea of colour coding his notes was genius. Sirius wandered over to the quills, knowing he has enough ink to last the year.

He traced the quills with his fingers, feeling the different textures. A soft, slightly brittle white one that most students had was probably the nicest. A shiny silvertip, plain and easy to clean. As he got to the end of the display a perfect quill caught his eye.  
A silken goose feather dyed a deep, dark, burgundy with a detailed golden tip. A lions head roaring with a snake slithering up the staff decorated the tip, making Sirius remember what the sorting hat had said. There’s good in Slytherin. Which means there can be bad in Gryffindor. They aren’t light and dark, just as Ravenclaw isn’t just smart and strong nor Hufflepuff dumb and weak. It’s stupid to believe so. He brought the quill as a reminder of this fact.

“Right boys, I think it’s about time we go to Rosa lee Teabag and get some food. We’ll avoid madam paddifoots and brews and stews cafe since a lot of the older years go on dates there so it’s normally very busy.”

They all agreed with James and followed him to the beautiful store. They entered the yellow store and saw a few 7th years hanging out at the front. They headed to a small booth at the back, quickly ordering their tea and pastries.

“What are we gonna do after this” Peter said with a full mouth

“Don’t speak when your mouths full peter it’s gross” Sirius scolded

“Calm down Siri, it’s not that bad- sides since we’re going along with James idea of us being ‘the prankers’ of the school probably zonkos” 

“No Remus have some standard, speaking with a mouth full is the worst thing a person can do. No one wants to see the mush and chunky slimy mixture of sludge in your mouth, nor the spit that saws out of it and lands of your face or own food. If there’s one crime that deserves the death penalty it’s speaking with food in one’s mouth”

“I don’t know if you’re being serious or joking”

“James, I’m always Sirius” and Remus groaned, wishing he was dead with that pun.

“I’m so proud that you’re using MY joke, Sirius. I feel like a proud dad watching his son catch his first snitch” 

“Kinda sad how only Sirius has a cool joke thing. I mean me and James don’t really have anything but why aren’t we calling Remus wolf wolf or something? Ya know since both Remus and lupin relate to wolves?” Peter said, ignoring the death stare Remus sent him. The two dark-haired boys however where gleaming at each other, silently agreeing that this was the nickname or Remus. It was to perfect.

“Remus, please tell me your middle name is woof or something,” Sirius asked.

“No Sirius its not, and I’m not telling you what it is”

“Rude. Also whats zonkos?”

“Prankshop you wanker”

“Why must I be insulted, James?”

“I don’t know ok, but this feels awkward and I don’t like it”

The boys laughed at that- for no reason at all but felt like they should- and settled into a semi-comfortable silence, sipping the still hot tea.

“Impressive how they manage to keep the tea warm but not boiling without tasting the charms on it isn’t it?”

“I suppose, though its just warming tea it can’t be that impressive” Peter replied to Remus.

The boy hummed in agreement, James heading to the till to pay as the boys grabbed their stuff and walked through the much clearer streets. The boys didn’t pay much attention to it, it was getting late so most likely a lot of the students were in the pubs or other tea shops. They walked into Zonkos and quickly scattered again, with Sirius walking over to a small display near a bird in a cage.

“Blackest of souls, whitest of hearts, Milord shall rise, while my boy may fall” the bird squawked, feathers falling off as it flapped its wing vigorously. 

“What on earth are you squawking about bird?” Sirius asked, not expecting an answer

“Snake blood in veins pumped through lions heart, a Ravens mind but a badgers eyes. A failure to lead, but a king of stone-” 

“Is there something wrong young man?” the owner asked Sirius. When he got there Sirius couldn’t tell you. To caught up with staring at the bird, terfided and overtaken by the dark shivers that flowed into him

“Mhm, just the bird started speaking something- rather unpleasant if I’m being honest- sota shocked me” Sirius whispered.

“That’s strange lad, considering the birds a simple owl- no ability to speak lad. Don't tell me the upper years have sold alcohol to you young lads again”

“Oh no, no alcohol. Maybe I heard something else- it is a joke shop after all” Sirius said, a slightly forced laugh at the end, covering the fact that he was scared shitless. That bird had definitely spoken. It spoke that stupid scary riddle thing and it’s like what the had said with Slytherin and Gryffindor but now it involved raven claw and Hufflepuff and Sirius didn’t understand. 

He chose to ignore it- something he’d been doing a lot recently. Ignoring large issues at hand. His cousins offer to help, the Slytherins that keep trying to pressure him into joining them, and now this stupid bird. Couldn’t life give him a break? Its almost Christmas right.

Speaking of Christmas, he’d promised to get Reg something- god Reg, he must be so disappointed in Sirius, not becoming a Slytherin, something even Andy hadn’t done that. He didn’t think he could deal with Reg being disappointed in him. His parents? Fine Grandfather? He’s disappointed in everyone, but Reg? The Black with the kindest of hearts? His little brother? Sirius couldn’t do that.

He’d have to try to make it up to him somehow with his present, though it wouldn’t even start to mend the cavern he’s sure to have made in their relationship, he hoped it would help. Show that he hadn’t forgotten him. Would never forget him.

It have to be perfect, mean something, not just a random thing like the Wazams Whompy whoopie cushions. Something that shows how he’s always going to be there for him. Something like these jars of painted stardust. Quickly picking up a jar he read the layble.

Grab a pinch of the dust, sprinkle it over any body of water, and within seconds have the night sky painted in front of you for the next few minutes.

It was the perfect gift for him, a reminder of him, and something easy to hide from their parents. He quickly brought the item, shoving it in his cloak pockets before strolling over to the other boys.

“This might sound strange boys, but any of you seen other students?” James puzzled, right hand full of bags as he opened the door to the shop.  
“none what so ever, that store should have been full of them- at the least the perewit twins should have been there?” Peter responded.  
“Remy, what’s the time”  
The shorter boy checked his watch at Sirius’s request, face dropping and skin paling as he did so.

“5:30”  
“When did McGonagal say to be back to the group by?”  
“4… we’ve been left behind because were so stupid”  
“No no no, it’s ok and fine. Wither we stay here and eventually a member of staff must come looking for us, or we hope we remember our way back and sneak into school”  
“Be a good time to check out the shrieking shack, heard it’s haunted by ghosts”  
“Sirius, no that’s a bad idea, in fact, let’s start going back on our own, I’m sure it’s easy enough, and there’s pathways so we don’t have to go through the first, it shall be fine, this way then”

The boys, not used to Remus acting so scared all decided not to talk about it, accepting their friend must fear ghosts- a strange fear considering Hogwarts is full of them, but a valid one nonetheless- and let him lead them back. While they thought it odd that Remus knew his way back so easily. They once again choosing not to mention it. Sides. The sooner they were back, the less likely they are to be shouted at.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sirius really wished he’d accepted his cousin’s offer of that help, his burning side practically begging for even the simplest of healing spells. It hurt so much, a clean slice marking his pale skin, blood seeping down and drying there, made by his grandfather's cutting curse.

It was surprisingly calm when he came home to 12 Grimrald place with his cousins- even if he wasn’t a Gryffindor his parents would never come to pick them up- as though they didn’t care. For some stupid reason, Sirius had believed that perhaps they didn’t mind he wore red, not green. He’d even been welcomed home with a hug from Regulus.

Of course, it was foolish to believe that, as after tea he was pulled upstairs to his father’s office by his Grandfather, telling the rest of their family to continue talking, before walking up the stairs, believing- no knowing Sirius would follow.

The sound of the cane banging against the wooden floors was the only noise filling this part of the house, not even the paintings on the wall were making the noise they always loved to do. Thump thump thump. The steady rhythm a horrifying contrast to the boy’s heartbeat, the erratic beating seemingly louder than the cane itself.

Arcturus Black opened the heavy office door swiftly, walking over and leaning gracefully against the desk, pointing his cane a few paces away from him, commanding Sirius stand there.

“Do you understand why I’ve called you in here, or must I be forced to make it clear to you Sirius?” He said, voice confident and dripping with venom, and spitting his name as though it were a curse.

Sirius nodded, flinching when Arcturus slammed his cane down, quickly correcting himself with a “yes sir”

Arcturus bore his piercing gaze upon Sirius, calculating his next move- a thing he only let someone see when he wanted to manipulate them. Sirius knew this- he did, heck he’d learnt to do the same from him. He wouldn’t fool for this tactic.

“Explain what you’ve done then, perhaps if you do your punishment shall lessen”

Gulping Sirius spoke “ I didn’t get placed in Slytherin, but in Gryffindor- dishonoring our family name- and as such have made it much harder for me to make ties with other pure-bloods” 

“Very good, for a start. I do believe your missing something out their Sirius” 

A puzzled look flashed across Sirius’s scared face before he went back to the wobbly stone face he’d been forcing the entire time. Damn it, he showed weakness again. Theirs a few rules in this family and one of them is to not show weakness. He’d been told that for years yet he still can’t do it. Not like he didn’t do the exact same thing to the other rule of being in Slytherin. Stupid stupid stupid.

“You mention that because of your placement, you’ve been unable to properly make ties with those in Slytherin- though if my sources are to be trust you haven’t even tried to- yet you’ve seemed to be able to make friends quickly enough with those lesser than us”

It dawned on Sirius what he meant, his friends, Remus James Peter. He’d forgotten in the few months away, few months of freedom, how his family would react to them. He should have known that some of the purebloods would tell his family- heck odds are Bellatrix and her fiance are two of the main ones. 

“Mmm now you see, if anything it’s you befriending those rodents- especially that lupin boy- that’s really upset me. In fact, I’m almost proud of your Gryfindoor status. Takes some courage to lead such a powerful house, and it doesn’t mean you lack ambition, no I’m fine with your sorting. It’s those no good friends of yours that I hate” Arcturus paused, eyeing Sirius with his cold grey eyes.

“I could be generous, It is Christmas soon right? Let you off with a warning, maybe we could forget this ever happened.” He said in an almost cherry tone, “ however that wouldn’t teach you anything. Tell you what, you can make a choice. I punish you now, or when you get back to Hogwarts you never speak to those boys again. Disobedience to this shall result in your punishment being worsened twisefold at least.”

The deal didn’t sound bad- heck to anyone else it would sound as though Sirius was being let off too easily. But Sirius knew better. This was a test, a test that no matter what he picked, he’d always be on the losing side. He’d fallen into this man’s trap the minute he’d said goodbye to him a few days before leaving for school. 

Heck, he’d been stuck in his trap since he was born, all those small choices he’d been given, the fact that he’d waited until he was home- going as far to pull him away from his family. It was all a test. It had always been a test. And Sirius was always going to fail. But if he was going to fail- he was going to fail protecting his friends.

“Though- I’m not giving them up. Their better friends than any of the purebloods you want me to know.”

“Not the answer I was looking for- but its Christmas, ill let you try again out of the kindness of my heart”

“The only thing in your heart is hate, a common trait among you pureblood idiots”

“Now Sirius, think carefully over what you’re saying, think boy because right now you’re acting as though you where a buffoon, would you really stay with those yapping squabbling mudbloods, or would you-”

“Don’t use that word.” “what” “you heard me. You must use that word” Sirius muttered. The shock that had formed on Artercus’s normally stockic face was covered by agony, he quickly turned to face away from Sirius gripping his wand and staring at the floor wide-eyed.

“They-ve ruined you”  
“No grandfather, they’ve bettered me, and if you would just-” Sirius was cut off mid-sentence by a dart of red leaving the wand of his grandfather, slicing at his 5th rib all the way to the bone. As Sirius let out an agonizing shriek Arctercus road out “THEY'VE RUINED YOU” before he stormed out of the office leaving Sirius to bleed.

And there’s where Sirius laid, for three hours before his father came into the room, took one look at him, muttered pathetic, and told him his punishment for tonight and school would happen tomorrow. It was then that Sirius finally mustered the strength to get up, to not just lie there and hope for death. He staggered down the halls to his own room before collapsing against the door.

Yeah, definitely needed that healing spell. Sirius was close to giving up, accept that he was most likely going to bleed out there- a stupid way to die in his opinion, not nearly flashy enough- if it wernt for the knock that came from his window. The dark haid boy slowly raised his head and saw the face of Andromeda staring back at him through the old window. Understanding that she wanted to be let in, but not being able to get up Sirius grabed his wand, thankful it hadnt been taken away from him, and cast a spell thart aloud the Window to open.

“Thank god the windows arnt entirely magic repelant- only on the outside- come now narcisa help regulus in then hand me over some viel of Twilight and some Élixir de Sommeil” the older girl spoke, slipping into their mother toung and with it, their french like accent. 

Though Sirius was slightly delirious, the force of using magic wasnt helping, he startled at the french quickly demanding an answer to his question “Why are you giving me a sleeping potion?”

“Sirius, the healing potions and magic will work much better when your asleep as your magic will settle down and wont fight back. Currently its in overdrive, expecting anouther attack and trying to mend the woond you have.” narcisa stepped in to the convosation, striding over to the woonded boy and giving him a quick hug.

The boy who until then had been tsanding in the corner rushed forward into his brothers arm, drawing back when he heard the other hiss. Regulus had tears on the edge of his eyes, threatening to spill over, and his lip was wobbling. Sirius quickly pulled his little brother back into his arms, whispering about how he was going to be ok, how it all was going to be ok.

“Its not ok though siri, i can see your bone, your in pain this is very much not ok!” the young boy stressed, panicked at the state of his brother. SIrius put his best smile on, masking the pain he was feeling.

“Its ok my little lion, its really not that bad. You know how i am over dramatic, as I said, its fine.” While Regulus didnt belive it, they all knew he didnt, he decided to let it go, choosing instead to lean into sirius good side while the two girls worked. 

“Technically your the lion now Siri”

“Supose i am, your still my lion tho, my brave proud lion.” 

“Im hardly that Siri, sides odds are im gonna be a slytherin. Its hardly suprising you whernt one-”

“The hat was going to put me in slytherin you know. It asked me if i wanted to go their. I should have said yes but i declined- I wanted to stay friends with some boys i met on the train. Reg, please, if you get given the option to not go to slytherin, think it over. Know ill be here to protect you either way. Got it little lion” Reg only nodded, taking in all that his brother had said like it was gold. To him it was- for years his brother had been the only link to the outside world. In a way he always would be for Reg.

“James potter is one of your friends right? Ghastly hair I must add, havent a clue the other two are, but its good to see your making conections for when its your time to lead the house of black”

“Narcisa please, can this talk not be saved for later?” Andromeda warned

“Im just pointing out the Potters are very good to make trade and deal with if Sirius were to wish to make the house of black a more ‘light’ family. A poweful pure blood family not mention they have connections with powerful half-blood wizards.”

“While i appreciate the imput, id much rather we have this discussion when my side isnt sliced to shreds” Sirius joked, though horible it was really as regs arms squeezed tighter, narcisas hamdds shook a little and Andromeda sent a pained look his way.

“Well” THe older girl started, clearing her throat “take this potion sirius, we’ll leave a couple more in your wardrobe- no doubt Orion will want to speak with you alone tommorow- and please try not to anger the adults thurther this holiday, we only brought so many potions”

“Where did you even get them?”

“Your little band of mistfits arent the only ones who stole from the potion lab” At sirius suprised look narcisa continued what she was saying “mmm thats right we know it was you lot who pulled that prank. That paint had your skills all over it not to mention the art piece. If only waliga knew what a skilled potioner you truly are”

The room fell into scilence arfter that, only the sound of Sirius deep breaths breaking the scilence. Once sirius had been forced the potions the girls got up, intending to leave the room out the window again, before a disoriented and dopy sirius called out to them

“Could you get the small box wrapped in gold and red out of my trunk? Should be on the top” the two sent questioning glances at each other before doing as Sirius had asked. Andy handed sirius the present before they took their leave out the dusty old window.

“Merry christmas Reg” sirius said, handing the younger boy the present with a drowsy smile, before he fell asleep, aided with the potions effects.

Regulus quickly opened the present, not even he could stiffle the childish joy he was feeling, and was presented with the powder along with handfuls of sweets and a little note. 

_Merry christmas Regulus, I had brought the sweets in an embarrassed panic and since their chocolate, might aswell go to you._

_Love from sirius._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need more snape rivalry don't I. God chapters are hard to write. don't want it be to chunky but not too little detail ya know?
> 
> Odds are I won't be posting for a while, or at least not to the main series as I want to rework the base ideas for the fic to thicken the plot line more. I might add more chapters to chapter one itself just cuss it feels very rushed and not a lot of character development not to mention a severe lack of Marauder angst that definitely should have been there. The boys are both too friends without a source for that friendship to stem from. I can fix that it just won't be in order.
> 
> Also realized I don't know how the lessons work at Hogwarts well so I'll base it off how my school works since it's most likely similar with them both being British schools.
> 
> (12/2) i have a large writer's block so yeah. I'm sorry
> 
> (19/2) still very much not over it so ill probs take a break from harry potter itself, maybe write some other fanfic ideas I had and recharge my love for this fanfic while again reworking the whole thing. Im so sorry


End file.
